Bible Text: St John 2:1–11 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Harold Ristau
“Lord Jesus, all the world’s hungry children, do something! Jesus, she’s dying of cancer, do something! Jesus, the car’s out of control, do something! Jesus, she won’t change, he won’t repent, do something! Lord, my marriage, my job, my health, my bank loan, do something! Jesus, they’re out of wine, do something!”
So often we act as if God is a sleeping giant, an old man with dementia, out there in outer space, once great and powerful but now old, silent, and out of touch with the troubles and issues that surround us. When confronted with big and small problems alike, we behave as if we need to give him a shove every now and again, wake him up, tell him how it is and what he must do to fix it.
We think that God should work our way, since after all we’re better informed than he. We live in this troubled mixed up world, whereas he is in a comfortable galaxy far far away. We know what’s best; we know what needs to be done. Maybe if we could get rid of God but have access to his power, we could do better than him!
So it was with Mary during the wedding in Cana. She foresaw what an embarrassing scene was about to take place if this bridegroom ran out of wine for his company. He would be the laughing stock of the village. She thought she knew what had to be done. So she said to her son, who she knew was the son, the son of God, the only begotten son of the Father, and who had demonstrated his divine powers before, “Jesus listen to ME, listen to your mother, I know what’s best.. Jesus, they’re out of wine, do something, do it now, and do it my way!“”
Do these words sound familiar? They echo my own thoughts during a car accident I was in many years ago. I remember thinking as we began to spin out of control at 100 Km an hour, “Lord, do something!, stop this spinning, stop the car, keep us on the road. Do something, do it now and do it my way!”
Yet how does Jesus respond? “Woman what does your concern have to do with me.” Or “what do we have in common?!” Not mother, or Mary but “woman”, “what do you have to do with me?” When we command God to act how we think he should, he says to us not child, not Harold but “Man” what do we have in common? You are just a human, but I, I am God”. To Job who questioned God’s way of doing things and his timing, he said likewise, “who is this that darkens my counsel?….were you there when the heavens and the earth were created?… etc.”…”look here pal, you’re just a simple man, I am almighty God; my foolishness is even greater than all of your wisdom!!”
Jesus is not disrespectful of his mother, but appropriately affirms his divinity. We need to be very careful envisioning Jesus in any way as a rebellious son here. He is perfectly respectful and obedient to his parents. He is not scolding, but rather gently correcting and instructing his mother. Nor should we dismiss his mother as an erratic bossy woman. Mary is the most blessed of all women, one of the greatest examples of virtue and humility, and there is not a day in her life that she doesn’t recall the Christmas story of the virgin birth. She knows her place. But she is still human, and a sinner. And so she could learn from her son, her savior, who is so gentle in heart with regards to his manner with her….
And with us…
For our Lord doesn’t so much rebuke us in our cries, but uses them to affirm His sovereignty. He will not be pushed around, commanded or advised according to human wisdom and our way. Afterall, Jesus is not just an ordinary man, but God, the creator of Mary and you and I. To Mary it is as if he says, “I am God, so I will do it my way! and so I will act in the way I know is best FOR YOU, and so I say to you, ‘My hour has not yet come”.
“My hour has not yet come”. This is God’s way of saying “I will act in my time“. And then he goes on to show us how he chooses to work: *by using a minor earthly issue to make a major spiritual point.
This simple and relatively undramatic miracle is not only the first of his signs, but the greatest of Jesus signs, summing up all of his ministry, revealing all the fullness of his glory, his sonship, in, oh, such a subtle, modest way: quietly, even secretly turning water into wine.
Yet isn’t this God’s way often? While we have our minds on the small immediate concerns of this world, God is thinking about the bigger picture, using our minor physical problems to guide us to major spiritual truths? I mean, afterall, Mary’s concern appeared big to her, but was really a pretty minor concern. Yet Jesus used that little incident to reveal the entire meaning of life! Our “big“ problems, are really pretty small, but Jesus acts in the same way. He has big things to teach us in our little local problems.
In my case of the spinning car which ended up rolling several times down a ditch, he did do something, but he didn’t do it my way, he did it his way! He taught me that even in the midst of crisis, when I thought He was gone, He was really , truly and fully present. What could have been a fatal accident turned out to be one which miraculously left me only with a few scratches and bruises. He did more than merely save me from death, he taught me, building up my weak faith. I learned the eternal truth that even when things look out of control, he is indeed in control. You see my way left no room for the learning of this priceless lesson; a truth more valuable than a smashed car. Only through a troubled situation could my eyes be opened to see how his way is better than mine.
“Jesus do something, they’re out of wine!” “Woman what do we have in common?” Jesus would give Mary more than she bargained for, using the problem to teach her and the disciples a deep valuable universal truth: Man has no wine, he is empty: but have no fear, I am in control, I will supply IN MY TIME AND IN MY WAY. And so Jesus turns water into wine using not just any old pot, but purification pots.
In Jewish custom, the purification pots represented cleanliness and holiness and were used by the Jews to ceremonially clean and wash their hands and utensils. In a sense this washing or BAPTIZING symbolized the great Day of Atonement when purification of sins would happen once and for all by means of divine blood. It was THIS water which was made wine. THESE pots were used. To those who had eyes to see, this sign pointed to Christ’s own death on the cross, the hour of the passion when the atonement would make man pure for good, the day that the son of God, born of a woman, would come indicated in Isaiah, to “tread the winepress alone” and pour out his own precious blood to fill the emptiness of all nations.
That atonement became ours in holy baptism. Our holiness pots were empty: “Jesus do something!” So God filled them with his own blood. Our present-day CRY for Jesus to ‘do something‘ reflects just how needy we are. And our present day DEMAND for him to do something reflects just how unholy we co continue to be. Yet God does do something by continuing to purify us in the Eucharist in which our pots are continually filled with his blood; in the Lord’s Supper our sins of pride, the stubborn demands we make of God, are washed away, and forgotten. Big things happen, big things are taught, in this simple looking ritual. This is his way of doing things; a gracious, good and perfect way; a way, way better than ours.
Jesus says, “I’ll do something, but we’ll do it MY way, cuz I know what’s best for you” :
In Cana, God’s way was to turn the water into wine, using a crisis to reveal his glory.
In our crisis’ His way is often to use the problem to strengthen our faith so we will come to him often with our empty pots, so he can fill them to the brim and demonstrate how wonderful and powerful he is, gaining our trust, so we don’t need to be anxious about eternal and unseen things.
In Jerusalem his way was to ‘do something’ by shedding his blood for us on a cross….
…so that in Mount Hope his way could become ours in the Sacraments, simple water miraculously converted into, what Luther described as, a rosy-red saving solution; holy water in which we were “dipped”, in his time. And simple wine miraculously converted into cleansing blood, in his way. (Every day his time and his way is whenever or wherever we meditate on his word and are reminded of our baptism) Every week his time and his way is the Divine Service where he not only continues to remind us of our baptism but continues to bring us his forgiving liquid, generously offering us his delicious and unique wine to drink, wine, though remaining wine still turned to blood, the endless supply of his holy drink which continually purifies us of all our self-righteousness and prideful demands we place on him.
Earlier you heard me say that the miracle at Cana was “Subtle”, “modest” and “quiet”: why? because most of the guests had no idea what just happened. They just got the thrill of better tasting wine. Only a few were ‘in the know’. It wasn’t a big huge miraculous display of God’s glory in comparison to so many other public miracles, like raising the dead or feeding 5000. It was undramatic…except, again, for those who had ears to hear….Then, and there, and today, here. For here in the Cana of this wedding feast, week after week, and even this morning, we are his guests, receiving a foretaste of the eternal feast to come.
Now you also heard me say earlier, if you listened carefully, that this was “greatest” of miracles. Why “greatest”, and not just “first”? In the text, the translation for “first” of Jesus signs, is also “ruler” or “pinnacle” of Jesus signs (not just an interesting chronological detail). We could say its the most exalted of his signs. But surely the raising of Lazarus or stilling a storm would be greater than this? Something more global, and even serious? But not according to St. John, who is btw, the theologian of the gang of Apostles. He is the quiet, maybe most introverted, disciple, who listens silently, acts carefully, and takes every word and act of Jesus thoughtfully to heart. St. John’s Gospel was the last of the Gospels to be written, and so he doesn’t repeat a lot recorded in the other Gospels. Instead, he spends a lot of time reflecting upon the spiritual significance of the miracles.
And he reflects on those events of our Lord, in a certain way. He does it sacramentally. He always always has the sacraments in the back of his head when recording the historical incidents. So, that being said, it shouldn’t surprise us that the first miracle that he records is also one of the greatest miracle to be recorded, because it is one unquestionably related to the Sacrament of the altar: Turning water into wine, as we have him here every Sunday turn wine into blood!
The greatest miracle imaginable, brother and sisters, is not getting your cancer healed, or getting that job you always hoped for. It is participating in the body of blood of Jesus in communion! Now this may sound trite, but the sacrament ultimately ends up being the solution to every problem. We think we know what the answer to our prayer should be. We get disappointed when God doesn’t behave as we wish. We panic, despair or sink into sadness and depression. But God has got it all in control better than you can realize. He gives you the forgiveness of sins, his love, himself in the holy Eucharist.
Now that doesn’t mean all your problems go away, such as your Christian brother or sister who has severely hurt you, and may not even realize it, is going to have the “aha” moment and repent of his sins and change his life. But you can know that the wounds in your heart are being healed. And as for the other guy, well, he may be like the guest at the wedding, never really understanding the deeper lesson as to why the party just got better. People can be shallow, and not every Christian is equally mature. But don’t fixate yourself on the other; after all that you can do, prayerfully leave him or her in the hands of the Lord. Instead, rejoice that YOU get to receive the new wine, and witness the most amazing miracle. The God-man who is invisible, yet all present, becomes manifested, and, so, “enfleshed” among us once again. For you! On this altar! That is way better than a turning of water into wine. That is like turning heaven into earth. For you! And God doesn’t do it to show off. But, rather, to rescue you, feed you, heal you.
No wonder we show such reverence during the Service of the Sacrament, genuflecting and bowing at every possible opportunity in the midst of our God hidden yet manifest in, with and under the consecrated bread and wine. You may notice at the sacrament that the chalice is lifted high when the words of dismissal from the altar are spoken; words such as “The true body and blood of your Lord Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve you in the one true faith until life everlasting”. Now why hold the chalice up high? Because it is the substance in that chalice doing the work. Jesus Himself. It is the host in the hand of the pastor blessing you with his love. Jesus himself. And you are not only the guest at the wedding of God, you are the very bride herself. And its all done for you, who God regards you as the queen of heaven!
Speaking about the Queen of heaven, we recall how at the cross, Jesus handed his mother over to, none other than St. John. The Blessed virgin undoubtedly would have assisted John in providing so many of the details of our Lord’s life, and so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Gospel of John has such a compassionate and soft tone to it. The influence of the Virgin Mary was certainly a great contribution: a mother whose heart was broken like only a mother could know, when she watched her son suffer such sadness before her eyes during the Passion. Though Christ is risen, those images don’t just subside. They stay imprinted in our hearts, and minds. They need constant healing. And like all suffering, they make us better Christians. And so too when it comes to this miracle, Mary would have been one of the first, in hindsight, to see the greatest of miracles being ones rooted in mercy, compassion and pity, and thus in the turning of water into wine at Cana. Mary, though the mother of God, also would have been one of the first to file up to the altar and supper, with the deepest of resurrection joy, after the ascension of her Son. If she needs it, so do we.
So when you wonder if God is in control and question his way of doing things, tempted to scream like Mary and me “Jesus do something!”, just remember the miracle at Cana, the miracle of the cross, the miracle in your life….which prove to you that the son of God does do something, does anything, did everything for his people…. …turning water into wine, and wine into blood, for you. Amen.